A controlled third place for Citroën's Sébastien Loeb in the Rally Japan has given the Frenchman his fifth consecutive World Rally Championship drivers' title, making him the sport's most successful driver of all time. The manufacturers' championship will be decided in the final round in Great Britain next month, after a one-two for the Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala.

For once, though, all eyes were on the man who claimed the final podium position. Loeb is reluctant to compare himself with past greats such as Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen, who both won the championship four times. "I've been really lucky to have a car that can win since the very start of my career," he said. "That's an important difference between me and many people."

From the start it was clear that Loeb was not going to be pushing on the narrow and slippery gravel roads of the all-new Rally Japan route. His only title rival was Hirvonen and, in the event of the Finn winning, Loeb needed at least third place to secure the title. "I knew what we had to do," he said. "Maybe I was a little too careful at the start but in situations like this it's hard to judge the correct pace."

As for Hirvonen, he drove with the freedom of a man liberated from pressure. "It's completely out of my hands," he had said at the start of the rally. "All I can do is drive as quickly as possible and hope for the best." Until stage six his plan was working perfectly: he led from the start, with Latvala and the Ford Focus WRC of François Duval keeping Loeb down in fourth. Then Duval had an accident which briefly stopped the rally and left his co-driver, Patrick Pivato, hospitalised. Pivato suffered a broken leg, broken pelvis and internal injuries and his recovery is expected to take months. When the action resumed Loeb had the third place he needed, which he maintained to the end.

The fledgling Suzuki team had their best result on home territory as the SX4 WRCs of Per-Gunnar Andersson and Toni Gardemeister finished fifth and sixth. Britain's Matthew Wilson, at 21 the youngest full-time competitor in the championship, was seventh after an event he described as one of the toughest of his career.